The King had already frankly declared his intention to assist the princes with the payment of 4000 men, and to send proportionate artillery and powder from England.

As the States had supplies in their magazines enough to move 12,000 men, he proposed to draw upon those, reimbursing the States for what was thus consumed by his contingent.
With regard to the treaty of close alliance between France, Great Britain, the princes, and the Republic, which the ambassadors had proposed, the--Lord Treasurer and his colleagues gave a reply far from gratifying.

His Majesty had not yet decided on this point, they said.

The King of France had already proposed to treat for such an alliance, but it did not at present seem worth while for all to negotiate together.
This was a not over-courteous hint that the Republic was after all not expected to place herself at the council-board of kings on even terms of intimacy and fraternal alliance.
What followed was even less flattering.

If his Majesty, it was intimated, should decide to treat with the King of France, he would not shut the door on their High Mightinesses; but his Majesty was not yet exactly informed whether his Majesty had not certain rights over the provinces 'in petitorio.' This was a scarcely veiled insinuation against the sovereignty of the States, a sufficiently broad hint that they were to be considered in a certain degree as British provinces.